Twenty one incremental services launched to further Digital India

In line with the government’s Digital India project, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, unveiled 21 incremental projects to add to the existing initiatives in this area. The launches are aimed towards incentivising electronics manufacturing, promoting entrepreneurship, supporting local languages apart from creating indigenous solutions for issues such as traffic management.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Communications and IT, also addressed the officials of the Ministry to mark the Good Governance Day along with unveiling these projects. “Technology is changing the face of India and you all (bureaucrats) need to keep that in mind while devising policies and rendering your duties,” he said. Making Digital India successful may look like a tall order currently, but it has to be done, he added.

An Indian language keyboard on the Android Platform developed by CDAC was launched on Thursday along with a Time Stamping feature for certifying authorities. Other initiatives included an e-governance competency framework, Indian domain names (dot Bharat) in local languages such as Gujarati, centres for technology incubation development of entrepreneurs, launch of support for international patent protection in electronics and IT and electronic manufacturing clusters in two places in Madhya Pradesh among others.

Ram Sewak Sharma, secretary, Department of IT, said that until the benefactor and beneficiary relationship exists between government and citizens, good governance will not happen. “Till now, e-governance has reached only 20% of its possible potential.”

Cabinet approved the blueprint for the Digital India project in August this year. Digital India envisages all government services to be delivered electronically by 2018. It will also provide “high-speed internet as a core utility” down to the gram panchayat level and a “cradle-to-grave digital identity – unique, lifelong, online and authenticable”.